Aaron Hughes says you have to be dedicated if you’re going to play football, basketball and baseball in the same school year.

And keep up a 3.2 grade-point average.

“Some nights you get home late, but you have to have self-motivation,” said the Windsor Forest High School senior. “You still have to get the book work done. Without that, you can’t play sports.”

Hughes’ athletic/academic juggling act never stalled, and he earned the Savannah Morning News’ 2012 Most Dedicated Athlete of the Year.

“As a head coach, you couldn’t ask for a better player,” said Knights football coach Jason Roundtree, who coached Hughes for four years. “Once he gets a goal in mind, he’s focused on completing it.”

As a quarterback, Hughes earned Region 3-AAAAA Player of the Year honors after throwing for a school-record 1,844 yards and 15 touchdowns.

He started as point guard for the basketball team and averaged 14 points and six assists a game.

For the past three years, he took the spring off from high school athletics. Not this year.

“Most of my coaches were like, “ ‘What about the Ashley Dearing Award?’ ” said Hughes about a award given locally to the most versatile three-sport athlete.

To be eligible for the Dearing Award, an athlete has to play football, basketball and a spring sport.

So Hughes set out to play baseball for the first time since eighth grade. And while he admits to some problems with the fastball, he registered a 6-0 record as a pitcher.

“I knew a little about (the Dearing Award) but I didn’t know a whole lot about it,” Hughes said. “I thought, why not play baseball? I played it growing up. It was an adjustment trying to get back into it, and I was playing a new position, pitcher, but it was fun.”

Hughes is still undecided on college, but says he’d like to focus on basketball and has offers from Erskine College, Francis Marion University and Mars Hill College.

He’d like to major in sports medicine.

But whatever the future holds, he’ll have memories of a special year at Windsor Forest High School.

“This was my senior year, so I had felt like I had to explode,” Hughes said.

ON THE WEB: A video of Aaron Hughes who talks about playing three sports at Windsor Forest.

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Setting and focusing on goals is not always an easy thing to do, particularly in the sometimes confusing world of high school. Windsor Forest senior Aaron Hughes has not only managed to stay focused, but has accomplished most of what he set out to do in the classroom, on the gridiron, on the basketball court and even on the baseball diamond. With much encouragement from his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Hughes, his coaches, Jason Roundtree, Joel Lacoeuvre, and Johnny Anderson, teachers, teammates and others, Aaron is well on his way to success at the next level. Like his predicessor, Donovan Campbell, who was also a multi-talented athlete and a strong student at Windsor Forest, Aaron now has numerous options from which to choose, where his future is concerned. Among those options, a career in sports medicine is certainly one which can garner him high return. I want to congratulate Aaron upon receiving the Savannah Morning News "Most Dedicated Athlete of The Year" Award. He certainly deserves it, and he has earned it.